FC Astana ties home game against Celtic

28.07.2016 10:22 2351

The game in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League between FC Astana and the Scottish Football Club Celtic ended in a draw 1:1 at the Astana Arena stadium.

Astana’s Yuri Logvinenko with a header scored the first goal of the game in the 19th minute from a corner kick. After the goal Astana intensified every attack with no success however up to the end of the second half. After the intermission the Kazakh champions continued their efforts to make it 2-0. But in the 78th minute, taking advantage of a blunder by Kazakh defender Dmitry Shamko, Patrick Roberts passed the ball to Lee Griffiths and the latter managed to get the ball in the net. The draw extended Astana’s unbeaten streak, which is not 8 matches. The next match will take place in Glasgow at Celtic Park stadium in August 3, which will decide Astana’s destiny in the Champions League this season.

Stanimir STOILOV, HEAD COACH, FC ASTANA:

I am pleased with the result and am satisfied overall. We have changed the scheme and, it was a good idea. There were too many moments and, we deserved to win. But in European football if you make a mistake you will be immediately punished. We have to win in Glasgow. I think, we will be in as determined as today.

Brendan RODGERS, HEAD COACH, CELTIC FC:

It is only half-time a very important result for us. It was an outstanding result for us. Collectively the mentality was the most pleasing thing. I think we were all written off before the game, everyone pretty clear in their opinion of the game, that we would do well to come back with anything other than a loss, but the players deserve an immense amount of credit, to fight and show spirit and passion in the game. I was disappointed with the goal, it is nothing new, but we showed a wonderful mentality to keep fighting and in the second half we restricted them to not so many clear chances and ended up scoring a fantastic goal. They had to cope with a long ball, they were quite direct at times and a high percentage of times we dealt quite well with it but we need to ensure that our concentration is 100 per cent.